Monday, October 30, 2017

President Masoud Barzani delivered a letter to the Kurdistan
parliament and then appeared on TV for the first time since the September 2017
referendum to announce that he would step down from office. His followers
immediately took to the streets and assaulted members of the press and
political parties, burning down offices, as well as storming the Kurdistan
Regional Government (KRG) parliament building.

Saturday, October 28, 2017

The fighting between the Iraqi government and the Peshmerga took
another turn. Initially, Baghdad was demanding that the Kurds return all the
areas that they occupied in 2014 when the Islamic State swept through Iraq.
After that was largely achieved Prime Minister Haidar Abadi took another step
and had federal units move on a border crossing where the Kurdistan Regional
Government’s (KRG) pipeline crosses into Turkey. This was a decided escalation
since the area is within the KRG, but the central government is claiming that
it should have authority over all Iraqi territory and borders.

Thursday, October 26, 2017

President Bush
constantly talked about winning in Iraq. In November 2006, the White House
released its “National Strategy for Victory in Iraq.” The problem was at that time,
the United States had no plan on how to achieve victory, and the strategy paper
wasn’t even approved by the Pentagon or military.

Wednesday, October 25, 2017

After the September 2017 Independence Referendum, the two
main Kurdish ruling parties found themselves in a quandary. President Masoud
Barzani of the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) was humiliated by the fiasco
that followed the election where the Kurds gave up not only Kirkuk but almost
all the disputed areas they had sought to annex following the fall of Saddam
Hussein. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) on the other hand was not only accused
of selling out to Baghdad by ordering its Peshmerga to fall back in the face of
the federal forces, but was deeply divided internally between two main
factions. Faced with these issues the two parties decided to delay elections so
that they could stay in power.

Monday, October 23, 2017

In the after math of
the September 2017 Kurdish independence referedum, Prime Minister Haidar Abadi
demanded that the Kurds relinquish control of the areas it occupied in Kirkuk
during the summer of 2014. This could have led to a war with the Kurdistan
Regional Government (KRG) across northern Iraq. Instead, divisions within the
two main Kurdish parties the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and Patriotic
Union of Kurdistan (PUK) led to the Peshmerga not only giving up the territory
the premier demanded, but Kirkuk city and disputed areas they took in Diyala
and Ninewa. There were some armed clashes as well. To try to give perspective
to this shocking series of events are several experts giving their personal
views.

Friday, October 20, 2017

Iraq had another week of very low violence. There have been
less than one hundred security incidents reported for the last eleven weeks.
Casualties were high however as the government made a rare announcement of
casualties from the Hawija operation.

Thursday, October 19, 2017

Gary Vogler
worked extensively in Iraq’s oil sector starting in 2002 when he was recruited
by the Pentagon to plan for postwar situations. That group was then folded into
the Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) and then the
Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). Vogler would later work as a contractor
and consultant in Iraq until 2015, and was involved in several major projects.
He recently published a book about his experiences Iraq and the
Politics of Oil, An Insider’s Perspective.

Tuesday, October 17, 2017

Prime Minister Haidar Abadi’s move in Kirkuk went from a
possible disaster to an unmitigated success. After fighting broke out in the
morning of October 16 the Kurds withdrew and the Iraqi forces took all the
positions they wanted plus Kirkuk city and areas of northeast Diyala. This was
the result of a deal with the major wing of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan
(PUK), which has left the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and President Massoud
Barzani hanging high and dry, and threatens the future of the Kurdistan
Regional Government (KRG).

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About Me

Musings On Iraq was started in 2008 to explain the political, economic, security and cultural situation in Iraq via original articles and interviews. If you wish to contact me personally my email is: motown67@aol.com